Department of Dermatology and Venerology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2012 Jun;1257:158-66. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06554.x.
Although the existence of tight junction (TJ) structures (or a secondary epidermal barrier) was postulated for a long time, the first description of TJ proteins in the epidermis (occludin, ZO-1, and ZO-2) was only fairly recent. Since then, a wealth of new insights concerning TJs and TJ proteins, including their functional role in the skin, have been gathered. Of special interest is that the epidermis as a multilayered epithelium exhibits a very complex localization pattern of TJ proteins, which results in different compositions of TJ protein complexes in different layers. In this review, we summarize our current knowledge about the role of TJ proteins in the epidermis in barrier function, cell polarity, vesicle trafficking, differentiation, and proliferation. We hypothesize that TJ proteins fulfill TJ structure-dependent and structure-independent functions and that the specific function of a TJ protein may depend on the epidermal layer where it is expressed.
尽管紧密连接 (TJ) 结构（或二级表皮屏障）的存在长期以来一直被假定存在，但 TJ 蛋白在表皮中的首次描述（紧密连接蛋白、ZO-1 和 ZO-2）直到最近才出现。从那时起，人们对 TJ 和 TJ 蛋白有了大量新的认识，包括它们在皮肤中的功能作用。特别值得关注的是，作为多层上皮组织的表皮表现出非常复杂的 TJ 蛋白定位模式，这导致不同层中 TJ 蛋白复合物的组成不同。在这篇综述中，我们总结了我们目前对 TJ 蛋白在表皮中的屏障功能、细胞极性、囊泡运输、分化和增殖中的作用的认识。我们假设 TJ 蛋白具有 TJ 结构依赖性和结构非依赖性功能，并且 TJ 蛋白的特定功能可能取决于其表达的表皮层。
